The CPD Standards Office (CPDSO) accredited providers, Avado Learning and Rentokil Initial both won gold at the Training Journal Awards 2016. But what does it take for a training provider to achieve such an accolade? The CPD Standards investigates.
As an ongoing supporter of the Training Journal Awards, the CPDSO sponsored the Best Training Partnership Award won by Avado Learning and the CIPD for developing an entirely online learning and development qualifications. Rentokil Initial, won the Best Use of Technology Award, for its internal learning and development provision named ‘U+’.
The CPDSO have accredited CPD activities for both Avado Learning and Rentokil Initial. This means both providers have been through the CPDSO six-week assessment process shaped by academic research and reviews their standard of learning delivery and authority of content.
Avado Learning – Forming great partnerships
Avado Learning has formed great training partnerships which has contributed to its success. Expert judges at the Training Journal Awards commented on its work with the CIPD: “They worked together to provide a solution to the digital skills gaps which existed in the CIPD community. Avado had the expertise of online delivery, but needed the subject matter expertise of the CIPD. This showed a really good play of locking together two strengths of the partnership.”
Avado Learning has built a successful partnership with Google delivering CPDSO accredited course ‘Google Squared Online’, a seven-month digital marketing course. The course aims to develop digital skills of future leaders and won silver for Best Online Distance Learning Programme category at the E-learning Awards in 2014 and shortlisted for the Marketing Society 2016 Excellence Awards in the Building Marketing Capabilities category.
Google Squared Online offers a Certificate in Digital Marketing to a wide range of professionals from mid-level managers to start up founders, department heads, account executives and marketing graduates in marketing and advertising. It is endorsed by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and NABS, a company that promotes wellbeing within the sector.
Students who graduate with a Squared Online certificate can put it towards to their CPD record for their professional body and use it for employability purposes.
Mark Howe, Managing Director, EMEA Agencies, Google confirms: “Google has had individual certifications and courses in its products before, but Squared represents a significant development beyond that; one that has the potential to transform an entire industry.”
Avado Learning’s confirm its partnerships have worked through their network of learning designers and technologists, industry experts, facilitators and tutors, community coordinators and account managers to create online learning experiences that are inspiring, useful and collaborative.
By working with Google and the CIPD, Avado Learning has worked with industry experts and developed a training products that customers can easily access and trust through brand recognition to teach them the key skills they need for their marketing or HR career. Avado Learning report that 96% of Google Squared graduates are more confident discussing and executing digital strategy and also nearly half of CIPD students feel more confident in creating digital content.
Rentokil Initial- Taking advantage of technology
Rentokil Initial award success has come from using technology as an enabler of training. The company provides expertise in Pest control, Building preservation, Specialist cleaning, Interior & Exterior landscaping and healthcare and waste management and owns 18 CPDSO accredited activities, amongst them includes: Types of Damp, Moisture Profiling, Potential Solutions for Lateral Rainwater Penetration and Solutions to Rising Damp.
The company’s award winning U+ learning and development programme is the wrapper name for its online in-house university courses and on-the-job training. By the end of 2015, 31,500 employees had undertaken U+ programmes on the code of conduct, health and safety, legal compliance and leadership development, together with sales, technical and operational topics specific to the business.
Judges at the Training Journal Awards this year commented on why Rentokil Initial U+ won gold this year: “A journey of true business transformation using learning technology as the enabler. This is the first common system across the whole company and supports collaboration, sharing of effective practice and a platform for designing more formal learning across the business. It has played a key part in improving attrition rates by 33% while reducing costs. They have now taken what they have learnt and extended it to customers, thus turning L&D into a true profit centre for the business. This tipped this programme into first place into what was arguably one of the closest judging sessions to date.”
Rentokil Initial also deliver its myLearning platform, a CPDSO accredited online platform for its customer’s employees, such as hotels to be more vigilant in pest control, legislation and compliance in health and safety.
The company uses the same digital platform to deliver both U+ and myLearning which shares short videos, mini quizzes to validate the learning process and infographics. A certificate is automatically generated at the end of each module to prove due diligence and training completion.
You can find out more about Rentokil Initial here.
Finding space for collaboration
The theme that runs throughout this article is collaboration. Both Avado Learning and Rentokil Initial have used this essential ingredient to deliver a sustainable training product which gets recognised.
Avado Learning have opted for ‘vertical collaboration’ in which they have found a brand partner in its supply chain to deliver digital training that customers can recognise and trust. Rentokil Initial have used ‘open collaboration’ and used technology to enable their learners to access essential knowledge about their product. Another form of collaboration is ‘horizontal’ in which companies such as NGOs and charities group together to create change.
The steps for collaboration starts with building stakeholder investment, networking and involving with experts to shape the process of the training product or service. Finally allowing lots of time to deliver on the planned outcomes so there is time to reflect on the good, bad and room for improvements.
Avado Learning and Rentokil Initial have analysed their markets, found collaborative opportunities and worked with experts such as the CPDSO to ensure they deliver comprehensively high standards of learning and CPD provision.
Award winning trainers find their gold through collaboration, investing expertise and understand how their training can make their customers more employable.
